Editing Language poets (section)

==Poetics of language writing: Theory and practice==
Language poetry emphasizes the reader's role in bringing meaning out of a work. It developed in part in response to what poets considered the uncritical use of expressive lyric sentiment among earlier poetry movements. In the 1950s and 1960s, certain groups of poets had followed [[William Carlos Williams]] in his use of [[idiomatic]] American English rather than what they considered the 'heightened', or overtly poetic language favored by the [[New Criticism]] movement. [[New York School (art)|New York School]] poets like [[Frank O'Hara]] and [[Black Mountain poets|the Black Mountain group]] emphasized both speech and everyday language in their poetry and poetics.

In contrast, some of the Language poets emphasized [[metonymy]], [[synecdoche]] and extreme instances of [[parataxis|paratactical]] structures in their compositions, which, even when employing everyday speech, created a far different texture. The result is often alien and difficult to understand at first glance, which is what Language poetry intends: for the reader to participate in creating the meaning of the poem.<ref>See, for example, [[Ronald Johnson (poet)|Ronald Johnson]]'s ''RADI OS'' in  [http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/projects/LANGUAGEn1/pictures/007.shtml L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, volume 1].</ref>

Watten's & Grenier's magazine '''[[This (magazine)|This]]''' (and '''[[This Press]]''' which Watten edited), along with the magazine ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'', published work by notable [[Black Mountain poets]] such as [[Robert Creeley]] and [[Larry Eigner]]. Silliman considers Language poetry to be a continuation (albeit incorporating a critique) of the earlier movements. Watten has emphasized the discontinuity between the [[The New American Poetry 1945-1960|New American poets]], whose writing, he argues, privileged self-expression, and the Language poets, who see the poem as a construction in and of language itself. In contrast, Bernstein has emphasized the expressive possibilities of working with constructed, and even found, language.

[[Gertrude Stein]], particularly in her writing after ''Tender Buttons,'' and [[Louis Zukofsky]], in his book-length poem ''A,'' are the modernist poets who most influenced the Language school. In the postwar period, [[John Cage]], [[Jackson Mac Low]], and poets of the [[New York School (art)|New York School]] ([[John Ashbery]], [[Frank O'Hara]], [[Ted Berrigan]]) and [[Black Mountain poets|Black Mountain School]] ([[Robert Creeley]], [[Charles Olson]], and [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]]) are most recognizable as precursors to the Language poets. Many of these poets used procedural methods based on mathematical sequences and other logical organising devices to structure their poetry. This practice proved highly useful to the language group. The application of process, especially at the level of the [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]], was to become the basic tenet of language [[Praxis (process)|praxis]]. Stein's influence was related to her own frequent use of language divorced from reference in her own writings. The language poets also drew on the philosophical works of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], especially the concepts of [[language-game]]s, meaning as use, and [[family resemblance]] among different uses, as the solution to the [[Problem of universals]].

===Language poetry in the early 21st century===
In many ways, what Language poetry is <!-- not a mistake-->is still being determined. Most of the poets whose work falls within the bounds of the Language school are still alive and still active contributors. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Language poetry was widely received as a significant movement in innovative poetry in the U.S., a trend accentuated by the fact that some of its leading proponents took up academic posts in the [[Poetics]], [[Creative Writing]] and [[English Literature]] departments in prominent universities ([[University of Pennsylvania]], [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|SUNY Buffalo]], [[Wayne State University]], [[University of California, Berkeley]], [[University of California, San Diego]], [[University of Maine]], the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]]).

Language poetry also developed affiliations with literary scenes outside the States, notably England, Canada (through the [[Kootenay school of writing]] in Vancouver), [[French literature|France]], the [[USSR]], [[Brazil]], [[Finland]], [[Sweden]], [[New Zealand]], and [[Australia]]. It had a particularly interesting relation to the UK ''[[avant-garde]]'': in the 1970s and 1980s there were extensive contacts between American Language poets and veteran UK writers like [[Tom Raworth]] and [[Allen Fisher]], or younger figures such as [[Caroline Bergvall]], [[Maggie O'Sullivan]], [[cris cheek]], and [[Ken Edwards]] (whose magazine ''Reality Studios'' was instrumental in the transatlantic dialogue between American and UK ''avant-garde''s). Other writers, such as [[J.H. Prynne]] and those associated with the so-called [[British Poetry Revival#Cambridge|"Cambridge" poetry scene]] ([[Rod Mengham]], [[Douglas Oliver]], [[Peter Riley]]) were perhaps more skeptical about language poetry and its associated [[polemics]] and theoretical documents, though Geoff Ward wrote a book about the phenomenon.

A second generation of poets influenced by the Language poets includes [[Eric Selland]] (also a noted translator of modern Japanese poetry), [[Lisa Robertson (poet)|Lisa Robertson]], [[Juliana Spahr]], the [[Kootenay School]] poets, [[conceptual writing]], [[Flarf]] collectives, and many others.

A significant number of women poets, and magazines and anthologies of innovative women's poetry, have been associated with language poetry on both sides of the Atlantic. They often represent a distinct set of concerns. Among the poets are [[Leslie Scalapino]], [[Madeline Gins]], [[Susan Howe]], [[Lyn Hejinian]], [[Carla Harryman]], [[Rae Armantrout]], [[Jean Day]], [[Hannah Weiner]], [[Tina Darragh]], [[Erica Hunt]], [[Lynne Dreyer]], [[Harryette Mullen]], [[Beverly Dahlen]], [[Johanna Drucker]], [[Abigail Child]], and [[Karen Mac Cormack]]; among the magazines [[HOW/ever]], later the e-based journal [[HOW2]]; and among the anthologies ''[[Out of Everywhere: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK]],'' edited by Maggie O'Sullivan for Reality Street Editions in London (1996) and Mary Margaret Sloan's ''[[Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women]]'' (Jersey City: Talisman Publishers, 1998).

Ten of the Language poets, each of whom at one time curated the reading series at the San Francisco coffee house of that name, collaborated to write ''The Grand Piano'', "an experiment in collective autobiography" published in ten small volumes. Editing and communication for the collaboration was accomplished over email. Authors of The Grand Piano were [[Lyn Hejinian]], [[Carla Harryman]], [[Rae Armantrout]], [[Tom Mandel (poet)|Tom Mandel]], [[Ron Silliman]], [[Barrett Watten]], [[Steve Benson (poet)|Steve Benson]], [[Bob Perelman]], [[Ted Pearson]], and [[Kit Robinson]]. An eleventh member of the project, [[Alan Bernheimer]], served as an archivist and contributed one essay on the filmmaker [[Warren Sonbert]]. The authors of The Grand Piano sought to reconnect their writing practices and to "recall and contextualize events from the period of the late 1970s."<ref>Barrett Watten, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070630065810/http://www.english.wayne.edu/fac_pages/ewatten/posts/post34.html "How ''The Grand Piano'' Is Being Written"], archived from the [http://www.english.wayne.edu/fac_pages/ewatten/posts/post34.html original] on 2007-06-30. Also: [[James Sherry (poet)|James Sherry]]'s commentaries in ''Jacket'', [http://jacketmagazine.com/32/sherry-piano.shtml The Ten-Tone Scale].</ref>
<ref>''[http://www.thegrandpiano.org/about.html The Grand Piano]''. thegrandpiano.org. Retrieved 2020-04-12.</ref> Each volume of ''The Grand Piano'' features essays by all ten authors in different sequence; often responding to prompts and problems arising from one another's essays in the series.

Some poets, such as [[Norman Finkelstein (poet)|Norman Finkelstein]], have stressed their own ambiguous relationship to "Language poetry", even after decades of fruitful engagement. Finkelstein, in a discussion with Mark Scroggins about ''The Grand Piano'', points to a "risk" when previously marginalized poets try to write their own literary histories, "not the least of which is a self-regard bordering on narcissism".<ref>Mark Scroggin (April 2007), [http://kulturindustrie.blogspot.com/2007/04/toy-piano.html "The Toy Piano"], ''Culture Industry'' blog, with commentary by Norman Finkelstein.</ref>